I have not seen this film, but encountered it on IMDb. I was in GHQ in Tokyo from 1947. In 1948 and 1949, as a sergeant, I was in charge of hiring Japanese entertainment acts to perform at enlisted, officers' and U.S. civilian clubs throughout the Tokyo area. This included engaging, providing transportation, and paying. It was a function of GHQ's Special Services organization. My office was a Quonset hut across from the Ernie Pyle Theater; across the other street was the Imperial Hotel. It was near Hibya Park.
It was a very satisfying job because the audiences were pleased, and the entertainers were happy to have a systematic way of getting work. One bad thing was that gangsters sometimes required the bus drivers to pay money to them in order to complete their trips.
The bands played often at the GHQ Enlisted Men's Club that was in a beautiful building. It was so nice that the officers tried to take it over, but Mrs. MacArthur--who was very nice--made sure that didn't happen. The manager's real last name was Shaughnessy (I see that he is represented in the film under s different name). His father was Clark Shaugnessy, an American baseball executive who was commissioner of the minor leagues.
When it was time for me to come back to the U.S. in May 1949 my staff organized a huge going-away party at the EM Club. Among other wonderful things was that they had arranged for a jazz band--6 or 8 players that was made up of the leaders of the most famous bands in Japan. In the U.S. it would have been like having a band made up of Artie Shaw, Glenn Miller, Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey, Harry James (I hope you get the picture).
The guys kept pouring drinks into me and I was smashed when they took me back to my quarters (in the NYK Building across from the Old Kaijo Hotel on one side and the Imperical Palace grounds on the other. It was the greatest party I ever attended and the greatest compliment from my men that I could ever have imagined.
I hope some day to see this film because I lived it.
